A story is told about Fiorello LaGuardia, who was mayor of New York City during the worst days of the Great depression and all of World War II. He was a colorful character who used to ride the New York City fire trucks, take entire orphanages to baseball games and, whenever the New York newspapers were on strike, go on the radio and read the Sunday funnies to the kids.

One bitterly cold night in December of 1935, the mayor turned up at a night court that served the poorest ward of the city. LaGuardia dismissed the judge for the evening and took over the bench himself. Within a few minutes, a tattered old woman was brought before him, charged with stealing a loaf of bread. She told LaGuardia that her daughter’s husband had deserted her, her daughter was sick and her two grandchildren were starving. But the shopkeeper, from whom the bread was stolen, refused to drop the charges. “It’s a bad neighborhood, your Honor,” the man told the mayor. “She’s got to be punished to teach other people around here a lesson.”

LaGuardia sighed. He turned to the woman and said, “I’ve got to punish you. The law makes no exceptions - $10 or 10 days in jail.” But even as he pronounced sentence, the mayor was already reaching into his pocket. He extracted a bill and tossed it into his famous sombrero saying; “Here is the $10 fine which I now remit; and furthermore I am going to fine everyone in this courtroom 50 cents for living in a town where a person has to steal bread so that her grandchildren can eat. Mr. Bailiff, collect the fines and give them to the defendant.”

So the following day the New York City newspapers reported that $47.50 was turned over to a bewildered old lady who had stolen a loaf of bread to feed her starving grandchildren, 50 cents of that amount being contributed by the red-faced grocery store owner, while some 70 petty criminals, people with traffic violations and New York City policemen, each of whom had just paid 50 cents for the privilege of doing so, gave the mayor a standing ovation.

Likewise, the grace of God operates at a profound level in the life of a loving person. Oh, that would recognize God’s grace when it comes to us!

America is a nation built under God and built upon the principles of the Judeo-Christian ethic. These principles guided the thinking of our founding fathers as they penned our Declaration of Independence on that faithful July 4.

America has not been, nor ever will be, a great nation just because she harbors a wealth of natural resources, or because she has a populace of intellectual giants. America’s greatness will forever parallel her adherence to the Bible, God’s Holy Word!

The name of the almighty God, in recent times, has literally been removed from our public schools in many places. Voluntary prayer has been banned. Creationism is no longer taught as a viable alternative to scientific evolution, which is now taught to our children as a fact. As God was taken out of our schools, we have seen permissiveness, and drug/alcohol epidemics creep in. Secular humanism, rather than Christ-centered education, has resulted in decadence and deterioration in many school districts.

So, we pray for our great nation of America. I am convinced that our Father is calling millions of Americans, in the so-often called silent majority, to join in the crusade to turn the United States of America around in our lifetime. We must return to our God, our church and to our Bible as before.

A young boy who had just got his driving license asked his father, who was a minister, if they could discuss the use of the car. His father took him to his study and said to him, “I’ll make a deal with you. You bring your grades up, study your Bible a little and get your hair cut and we’ll talk about it.”

After about a month the boy came back and again asked his father if they could discuss the use of the car. They again went to the father’s study where his father said, “Son, I’ve been real proud of you. You have brought your grades up, you’ve studied your Bible diligently, but you didn’t get your hair cut!”

The young man waited a moment and replied, “You know Dad, I’ve been thinking about that. You know, Samson had long hair, Moses had long hair, Noah had long hair, and even Jesus had long hair…”

To which his father replied, “Yes, and they walked everywhere they went!”